CHAPTER XXIII 



THE REARING OF QUEENS 



Unless the queen at the head of a colony is a good one 

 it is useless to expect that colony to be productive. It 

 therefore becomes necessary for the progressive beekeeper 

 to pay considerable attention to the rearing of queens which 

 fulfill the requirements for commercial success. The chief 

 requirements are prolificness, vigor of offspring and purity 

 of race. While ability in egg-laying is a character which is 

 inherited, it is also influenced by the age of the queen and by 

 the care she received during her development. Quietness 

 in winter, reduction in swarming and gentleness are other 

 desirable characters. 



Commerical queen-rearing. 



Queen-rearing has become a prominent specialty in 

 American beekeeping and there are numerous beekeepers 

 who devote almost their entire energies to rearing queens of 

 various races for sale. To these specialists, beekeepers have 

 in the past looked for the greatest advancement in the 

 breeding of better stock, but it is becoming more and more 

 evident that this work should not be left entirely to commer- 

 cial breeders. In any event it is usually not economical for 

 the extensive beekeeper to purchase all of his queens. Queens 

 that have been shipped through the mails, especially those 

 that have previously been lajdng heavily, are frequently in- 

 jured to the extent that they never again fully show their 

 former prolificness. Even if this were not the case, the cost 

 of queens is almost always greater than is warranted by the 

 2e 417 



